Relationship Loopholes
by Allusion-Conclusion
Summary: Star makes a deal in order to get long lost Queen Moon back. Marco must deal with the consequences. My contribution for the Svtfoe SubReddit's January 2019 24-hour short story contest. Theme: Cleaved.


p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"Star purposefully made a terrible decision. A horrible, queenly decision. She said "Yes!" and bound herself to the Varmin empire's contract. It's ironbound clauses and terms made the 'terms of service' of her old Earth laptop look like that white hole-cheese Angie had been so fond of. If Mewni wanted long lost Moon back, Star had to marry the heir of the Varmin empire./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /"No!" Marco screamed as ribbons of magic worked their way up the arms of both his best friend and Empress Saline. Saline smiled in victory. The Empress had brought most of her court and a variety of her sons, the majority of them sneered as Marco ranted and railed against their blackmail, their black ways./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /The first prince of Varmin retorted with acid on his tongue, "Remember your place, remember who you are! You are no prince, no king!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /River bristled, Marco clenched his hands into fists, and a miasma of violence hung heavy in the air. There was a bright pink flash of magic and the room of nobles found both Marco wrapped in red lace, and a pervading scent of raspberries. Star snapped angrily, "Not another word! I'm sorry Marco, but we need my mom, and we really need the empire's resources to help rebuild." She began to drag the huge Latino behind her. "Come the dawn you'll be banished from Mewni, unable to return until the wedding.. I hope to see you and your parents attend it. I, I know you're feeling torn apart, this next chapter of our lives is going to be rough on both of us." The woman adjusted her burden and with authority said over her shoulder, "I'm so sorry for what is to come."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /She spent the night in his room, she'd not so much snuck out of her opulent chambers as made a procession of it. Ever graceful, Star dumped her crown onto the floor with a clang. With his dimensional scissors she tore at the raspberry bindings that held him. Bringing her lips closer to his with the snap of each band./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /Amidst the afterglow they cuddled. As her Marco snored she opened and closed his scissors in the moonlight. Their reflections appeared, disappeared, and danced across the unbreakable blades. Throwing one of his heavy arms across her form she knew his place was beside her. Rembering how he'd earnt his scissors she knew exactly who he was and exactly what he was capable of./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /The carriage trundled to the border of Mewni as the sun rose, seemingly splitting the kingdom between the sky and the dirt. Harsh red light assulted the driver's eyes. River's paw was wrapped around Moon's dainty hand, the Varmin had been nothing but punctual, seemingly eager to be rid of the weakened Butterfly. Exhausted as she was Moon had chosen to accompany the parting young man./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /"The contract is unbreakable, and literraly untearable, but you already knew this Marco." Queen Moon paused to catch her breath as the conveyance rocked along, "My erm, strongemdisheveled/em/strong, daughter is locked into it. However, while the pen may be mighty, I and Star have found the wording 'current heir' to be rather subjective."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /Almost giddy now, River chimed in, "And Marco my boy you strongemcurrently/em/strong have a lot of free time./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /"A year. There's less than a year until Star marries," the undaunted queen's eyes narrow, "She said she'd prefer a red dress at her wedding." The carriage halts and Manfred opens the filigreed door with a bow./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /"Wait, wait!" The blond king scrabbles for a bit before pulling a bundle from within his suitjacket and continuing, "Star wanted me to give you her parting gift. It's a Butterfly tradition, but her choice shows she's a Johansen through and through."/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /Marco felt a silk covered mass pressed into his hands. His nose reacted first. Corn knew what was inside. The bag though smelt like her, like Star./p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /The queen was droll in her response, "Really Star, you couldn't find any better wrapping than your pillowcase?"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /Pride encompassed River's words, "She knows you prefer to fight unarmed, but a young man making his way alone in the world needs a good sword! As we left Star asked me to find you a stout blade. When I showed her what I found, she said she loved it!"/p  
p style="font-family: 'Lucida Grande', 'Lucida Sans Unicode', 'GNU Unifont', Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"br /Reaching within Marco grasped a rough handle and found the heft reasuring. It was short, perhaps some traditional Mewman gladius-axe hybrid? It felt.. powerful. Marco withdrew his weapon from the silken pillowcase, he saw that along the twin flats of the wide blade Star had etched the word King-Maker in magic and purple glitterpen. Star had gifted him a meat cleaver./p 


End file.
